Finance and the Good Society


Robert J. Shiller - 2012
    New York Times best-selling economist Robert Shiller is no apologist for the sins of finance--he is probably the only person to have predicted both the stock market bubble of 2000 and the real estate bubble that led up to the subprime mortgage meltdown. But in this important and timely book, Shiller argues that, rather than condemning finance, we need to reclaim it for the common good. He makes a powerful case for recognizing that finance, far from being a parasite on society, is one of the most powerful tools we have for solving our common problems and increasing the general well-being. We need more financial innovation--not less--and finance should play a larger role in helping society achieve its goals.Challenging the public and its leaders to rethink finance and its role in society, Shiller argues that finance should be defined not merely as the manipulation of money or the management of risk but as the stewardship of society's assets. He explains how people in financial careers--from CEO, investment manager, and banker to insurer, lawyer, and regulator--can and do manage, protect, and increase these assets. He describes how finance has historically contributed to the good of society through inventions such as insurance, mortgages, savings accounts, and pensions, and argues that we need to envision new ways to rechannel financial creativity to benefit society as a whole.Ultimately, Shiller shows how society can once again harness the power of finance for the greater good.

Secret Formula: The Inside Story of How Coca-Cola Became the Best-Known Brand in the World


Frederick Allen - 1994
    Award-winning reporter Frederick Allen’s engaging account begins with Asa Candler, a nineteenth-century pharmacist in Atlanta who secured the rights to the original Coca-Cola formula and then struggled to get the cocaine out of the recipe. After many tweaks, he finally succeeded in turning a backroom belly-wash into a thriving enterprise.   In 1919, an aggressive banker named Ernest Woodruff leveraged a high-risk buyout of the Candlers and installed his son at the helm of the company. Robert Woodruff spent the next six decades guiding Coca-Cola with a single-minded determination that turned the soft drink into a part of the landscape and social fabric of America. Written with unprecedented access to Coca-Cola’s archives, as well as the inner circle and private papers of Woodruff, Allen’s captivating business biography stands as the definitive account of what it took to build America’s most iconic company and one of the world’s greatest business success stories.

Beat the Forex Dealer: An Insider's Look Into Trading Today's Foreign Exchange Market


Agustin Silvani - 2008
    It is one of egos and money, where millions of dollars are won and lost every day and phones are routinely thrown across hectic trading desks. This palpable excitement has led to the explosion of the retail FX market, which has unfortunately spawned a new breed of authors and gurus more than happy to provide misleading and often downright fraudulent information by promising traders riches while making forex trading 'easy'. Well I'll let you in on a little secret: there is nothing easy about trading currencies. If you don't believe me then stop by Warren Buffet's office and ask him how he could lose $850m betting on the dollar or ask George Soros why his short yen bets cost him $600m not once but twice in 1994. What's wrong with these guys, don't they read FX books? In reality, the average client's trading approach combined with the unscrupulous practices of some brokers make spot FX trading more akin to the games found on the Vegas strip than to anything seen on Wall St. The FX market is littered with the remains of day traders and genius 'systems, ' and to survive in the long-run traders have to realize that they are playing a game where the cards are clearly stacked against them. Have you ever had your stop hit at a price that turned out to be the low/high for the day? Bad luck perhaps? Maybe. What if it happens more than once? Do you ever feel like the market is out to get you? Well guess what, in this Zero Sum game it absolutely is. Covering the day-to-day mechanics of the FX market and the unsavoury dealings going on, Beat the Forex Dealer offers traders the market-proven trading techniques needed to side-step dealer traps and develop winning trading methods. Learn from an industry insider the truth behind dirty dealer practices including: stop-hunting, price shading, trading against clients and 'no dealing desk' realities. Detailing the dealer-inspired trading techniques developed by MIGFX Inc, consistently ranked among the world's leading currency trading firms, the book helps turn average traders into winning traders; and in a market with a 90% loss rate winning traders are in fact quite rare! More than just a simple manual, Beat the Forex Dealer brings to life the excitement of the FX market by delivering insights into some of the greatest trading triumphs and highlighting legendary disasters; all written in an easy to read style. Make no mistake about it there is a lot of money to be made in currency trading, you just have to know where to look. Sidestepping simple dealer traps is one way of improving your daily p&l, but it is surely not the only one. Successful trading comes down to taking care of the details, which means skipping the theoretical stuff and providing only up-to-date, real-life examples while sharing the FX trading tips that have proved so profitable over the years. By stripping away the theory and getting down to the core of trading, you too will find yourself on the way to beating the forex dealer!

The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order


Benn Steil - 2013
    The name of the remote New Hampshire town where representatives of forty-four nations gathered in July 1944, in the midst of the century's second great war, has become shorthand for enlightened globalization. The actual story surrounding the historic Bretton Woods accords, however, is full of startling drama, intrigue, and rivalry, which are vividly brought to life in Benn Steil's epic account.Upending the conventional wisdom that Bretton Woods was the product of an amiable Anglo-American collaboration, Steil shows that it was in reality part of a much more ambitious geopolitical agenda hatched within President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Treasury and aimed at eliminating Britain as an economic and political rival. At the heart of the drama were the antipodal characters of John Maynard Keynes, the renowned and revolutionary British economist, and Harry Dexter White, the dogged, self-made American technocrat. Bringing to bear new and striking archival evidence, Steil offers the most compelling portrait yet of the complex and controversial figure of White--the architect of the dollar's privileged place in the Bretton Woods monetary system, who also, very privately, admired Soviet economic planning and engaged in clandestine communications with Soviet intelligence officials and agents over many years.A remarkably deft work of storytelling that reveals how the blueprint for the postwar economic order was actually drawn, The Battle of Bretton Woods is destined to become a classic of economic and political history.

Point and Figure Charting: The Essential Application for Forecasting and Tracking Market Prices (Wiley Trading)


Thomas J. Dorsey - 1995
    - Jim Rogers, author of Hot Commodities and Investment Biker "An invaluable road map for managing risk in the markets. Tom's methodology has given us the discipline and confidence to look around corners for our clients for almost twenty years." - James A. Parish, President and COO, Morgan Keegan & Co., Private Client Group "Tom Dorsey continues to be one of the foremost authorities on Point and Figure charting. His relative strength analyses are essential for investors and traders alike. Furthermore, I always want to know what his NYSE Bullish Percent Indicators is "saying." - Lawrence G. McMillan, President, McMillan Analysis Corp., "Tom Dorsey has done it again...he has taken his 30-plus years of unending devotion, talents, and insights in technical analysis and applied them to Exchange Traded Funds. He begins with the history of ETFs, explains how different they are from mutual funds, and then applies his expertise in Point and Figure charting to help traders and investors time their purchases and sales." - Ralph J. Acampora, CMT, Director of Technical research, Knight Capital "Reading Tom Dorsey's Point & Figure Charting is the like procuring a road map before you begin a journey. It's a comprehensive look at how to succeed in the markets. This book is not only essential but easy to follow for everyone." - Paulo Pinto, CEO, Dif Broker "Point and Figure Charting has become a valuable part of my daily trading routine. As an investment professional, it makes perfect sense to use Tom's methods in conjunction with fundamental analysis." - Damion Carufe, Investment Professional

Financial Accounting


Walter B. Meigs - 1983
    Throughout the writing process of this edition, the authors worked closely with a developmental editor to help ensure the text is student-friendly and even more responsive to the variety of learning styles. The text is enriched with real-world examples and illustrations from a variety of business environments. Futhermore, the text's new, four-color design allows instructors a high degree of flexibility and emphasis.

The Summit: Bretton Woods, 1944: J.M. Keynes and the Reshaping of the Global Economy


Ed Conway - 2014
    But the meeting at Bretton Woods in 1944 was different. It was the only time countries from around the world have agreed to overhaul the structure of the international monetary system. Against all odds, they were successful. The system they set up presided over the longest, strongest and most stable period of growth the world economy has ever seen. Its demise some decades later was at least partly responsible for the periodic economic crises that culminated in the financial collapse of the 2000s.But what everyone has always assumed to be a dry economic conference was in fact replete with drama. The delegates spent half the time at each other's throats and the other half drinking in the hotel bar. The Russians nearly capsized the entire project. The French threatened to walk out, repeatedly. All the while war in Europe raged on.At the very heart of the conference was the love-hate relationship between the Briton John Maynard Keynes, the greatest economist of his day, who suffered a heart attack at the conference itself and who was a true worldwide celebrity - and his American counterpart Harry Dexter White (later revealed to be passing information secretly to Russian spies). Both were intent on creating an economic settlement which would put right the wrongs of Versailles. Both were working to prevent another world war. But they were also working to defend their countries' national interests.Drawing on a wealth of unpublished accounts, diaries and oral histories, this brilliant book describes the conference in stunning color and clarity. Bringing to life the characters, events and economics and written with exceptional verve and narrative pace, this is an extraordinary debut from a talented new historian.

The Alpha Masters: Unlocking the Genius of the World's Top Hedge Funds


Maneet Ahuja - 2012
    Written by Maneet Ahuja, the hedge fund industry insider, The Alpha Masters brings the secretive world of hedge funds into the light of day for the first time. As the authority that the biggest names in the business, including John Paulson, David Tepper, and Bill Ackman, go to before breaking major news, Ahuja has access to the innermost workings of the hedge fund industry. For the first time, in Alpha Masters, Ahuja provides both institutional and savvy private investors with tangible, analytical insight into the psychology of the trade, the strategies and investment criteria serious money managers use to determine and evaluate their positions, and special guidance on how the reader can replicate this success themselves.There are few people with access to the inner chambers of the hedge fund industry, and as a result it remains practically uncharted financial territory. Alpha Masters changes all that, shedding light on star fund managers and how exactly they consistently outperform the market. The book:Contains easy-to-follow chapters that are broken down by strategy--Long/Short, Event Arbitrage, Value, Macro, Distressed, Quantitative, Commodities, Activist, pure Short, Fund of Funds. Includes insights from the biggest names in the trading game, including Ray Dalio, Marc Lasry, Jim Chanos, Sonia Gardner, Pierre Lagrange, and Tim Wong. Features contributions from industry icon Mohamed El-Erian Many of the subjects profiled in this groundbreaking new book have never spoken so candidly about their field, providing extremely provocative, newsworthy analysis of today's investing landscape.

The 25 Sales Habits of Highly Successful Salespeople


Stephan Schiffman - 1991
    . . And How to Avoid Them teaches salespeople how to demonstrate trustworthiness, turn a customer's objection around, and 23 other proven habits for sales success.